Quotes by Shane Black

Shane Black

An action film can have too much action; picture an equaliser on a stereo, with all the knobs pegged at 10. It becomes a cacophony and is, ultimately, quite boring.

Action

Cacophony

Too Much

An action movie should, like any other, follow the narrative traditions of literature. That means there should be subtlety, a slow build and a gradual bringing together of all the separate threads of the plot. To see all of it coming together slowly is very rewarding for the audience.

Mean

Plot

Together

Any time anyone fires bullets in an action movie that don’t hit the target it immediately undermines the movie.

Bullets

Fire

Target

Directing comes closer than anything I’ve found yet to providing me with a good reason to get up in the morning that goes beyond just getting some money. Because all the money does is buy the bed. Getting out of it is the problem.

Bed

Doe

Morning

Every director should take an acting class. At least one. You know, you panic with actors. It’s like, “Okay, this is back in college, I know how to talk to these guys. I know their vocabulary, and I get what they’re saying back to me.” So basically to learn the vernacular of acting, that’s very important.

College

Guy

Important

For years I was doing the excruciating weightlifting of writing scripts – but then I stayed thin and someone else got all the muscles.

Scripts

Writing

Years

Going to UCLA, as far as I’m concerned, afforded me two things. One was the advantage of meeting friends and getting to know a group of guys I hung out with, was chummy with. All of us eventually had success with film. Making films, cutting our own little movies together, 3 in the morning going out and shooting stuff, finding gels that people had thrown away, making our own lights. It was like a frat house for film geeks, the Pad O’ Guys. That’s what being at UCLA afforded me.

Cutting

Morning

People

Here’s what I didn’t know when I was starting out that I now know…I thought when you were starting out it was really hard to write because you hadn’t broken in yet, you hadn’t really hit your stride yet. What I found out paradoxically is that the next script you write doesn’t get easier because you wrote one before…each one gets harder by a factor of 10.

Broken

Starting Out

Writing

I always have humour in my action movies. I think characters that make jokes under fire are more real. It somehow helps put you in their shoes.

Character

Real

Thinking

I do think the challenge, in a way for me, is to write a narrative film and when you finish watching it you feel like it’s a collage. You tell the narrative, you tell the story, but you feel like you’ve created this tapestry. But it also has a shape, a story. So I think there’s a middle ground that I try to strike… away from where everyone else seems ready to go, which is, setup, payoff. You know, He’s afraid of water, oh, and at the end he’s swimming in water – oh, my God. I hate that stuff.

Hate

Swimming

Writing

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Action

Add

Adventure

Audience

Basics

Bed

Believe

Blow

Broken

Bullets

Cacophony

Capes

Careers

Character

College

Commitment

Common Experience

Competition

Couple

Creative

Cutting

Differentiation

Doe

Done

Enthusiasm

Film

Fire

Fishing

Fit

Forgotten

Games

Giving

Giving Up

Good Friend

Guy

Hard Work

Hate

Honestly

Honesty

House

Humbling

Ideas

Important

Interesting

Jealous

Jobs

Kids

Kissing

Laughing

Lonely

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

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The Dating Diary

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Shane Black

Shane Black

An action film can have too much action; picture an equaliser on a stereo, with all the knobs pegged at 10. It becomes a cacophony and is, ultimately, quite boring.

An action movie should, like any other, follow the narrative traditions of literature. That means there should be subtlety, a slow build and a gradual bringing together of all the separate threads of the plot. To see all of it coming together slowly is very rewarding for the audience.

Any time anyone fires bullets in an action movie that don’t hit the target it immediately undermines the movie.

Directing comes closer than anything I’ve found yet to providing me with a good reason to get up in the morning that goes beyond just getting some money. Because all the money does is buy the bed. Getting out of it is the problem.

For years I was doing the excruciating weightlifting of writing scripts – but then I stayed thin and someone else got all the muscles.

I always have humour in my action movies. I think characters that make jokes under fire are more real. It somehow helps put you in their shoes.

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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